New Genera of B7'itish Mymaridae. 451 



The microscopic drawings, though tedious to do, brought 

 out valuable characters which I considered would be of the 

 greatest help whenever I could spare time to begin my 

 monograph — which I have long considered my duty to do — 

 and follow out the hope expressed by Francis Walker, who 

 (in the " Entomologist " for 1872-73, vol. vi) wrote : 

 *' From the number of specimens which I have observed, 

 I believe that the Mymaridae are considerably more 

 numerous than what has been recorded. Their exquisite 

 elegance would appear to advantage in highly magnified 

 figures of each kind, and one of the ' coming race ' of 

 entomologists will do well to investigate their successive 

 epochs of life and to publish his discoveries with illustra- 

 tions." Ever since I read this, I have felt that this 

 message appealed peculiarly to myself, as I had been so 

 long engaged in microscopic work, as well as microscope 

 drawing, but owing to increasing weakness of sight I was 

 obliged to give up drawing the Mymaridae, but, like many 

 other apparent disappointments, this turned out for the 

 best, as it riveted my attention to photography, more 

 especially photo-micrography, which I have since proved 

 is the only means whereby the microscopic structure and 

 form of the wings of the Mymaridae can be truthfully 

 shown, the extreme minuteness of the sj^ecies rendering 

 them most apt subjects for photo-micrography, for no 

 drawings can be trusted for minute structural detail. 



For the past three years I have received the most valu- 

 able help in the way of carded specimens and naming the 

 genera, from our late President, Mr. C. O. Waterhouse, 

 who has, I am delighted to say, become captivated by these 

 Fairy Flies, and with whom I look to both capturing many 

 new species as well as co-operating in my monograph on 

 our British Mymaridae, which are to be found almost 

 everywhere and anywhere, in the most unlikely places, 

 such as the corners of a top sash bar in a conservatory 

 at Holloway where, ten years ago, I captured a male 

 Doriclyhts, new to Great Britain, and last August, another 

 new genus on the self-same pane of glass, as well as a 

 female Doriclytus. These facts prove that there is no 

 royal road to success. Only additional workers are 

 needed to bring out the many unrecorded genera and 

 species which are waiting to be captured and recorded. 



At some future time I hope to bring before the 

 Entomological Society some of the facts in the life-history 



